"When the trains with the box cars stopped, some of the hobos would hop down and ask the nearby people for food. Some of them were very hungry and had been without food for a long time.

"My mother always said that when someone asks you for food, feed them. She always had a large pot of soup on the old coal stove."Dad would often sit on the porch with them and listen to their stories about their travels. They told him about how they had special signs, and secret words that told the other hobos where they would be accepted and fed."That's an excerpt from a Dear Tamaqua letter written by June Tiley Krell, born in 1932, whose family moved from Reynolds to Tamaqua during the depression.Their home was located where the Sunoco Service Station stands today, along Route 309 near the center of town.Krell's remembrances of the town were part of her letter written to Dear Tamaqua, a project launched by the Tamaqua Safety Initiative through its coordinator Leona Rega, who runs the Tamaqua Community Art Center.It's funded by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts through a partnership with Jump Street of Harrisburg, a community-based arts incubator.Thursday afternoon, representatives from Jump Street and Touchstone Theatre, a branch of the Council of the Arts, visited the Tamaqua Adult Day Care Center on Broad Street to talk to residents and encourage their participation in the venture by helping them write letters and also videotaping them as they spoke.J.P. Jordan, of Touchstone Theatre and a 1995 graduate of Tamaqua Area High School, sat with Alice Trusky, a day care client."There were a lot of things we didn't have, but I had a good family," Trusky said. "I would wish for the next generation in Tamaqua that the children go to college or get employed, and have a good life like I have."Another client, Mary Rigotti, said that when she was growing up, her parents taught her to run errands for people who were unable to shop for themselves."We were good neighbors and people took care of each other," she recalled. "We are a special place because of our ability to help each other."All Tamaqua residents are being encouraged to share their thoughts and stories of the community through written word, original music, video, poetry and visual art.Recently a "Dear Tamaqua" crew visited Bungalow Park in Tamaqua, and asked youngsters to draw their favorite place.Rega said that people can make submissions in any medium that communicates a personal memory, a unique Tamaqua experience or a hope for the future. Local bars are even using "Dear Tamaqua" coasters, and encouraging their patrons to write on the blank side.Letters may be mailed to Tamaqua Safety Initiative, c/o Dear Tamaqua, 125 Pine St., Tamaqua, PA 18252.Electronic submissions may be entered through the project website at

www.deartamaqua.com or through

leona@tacp.info.So far, Dear Tamaqua has collected 44 bar coasters, 130 drawings from kids and 238 letters.